Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Deveron Festival Day 3 - Dunlugas

My final day of the 3 days free fishing on the river Deveron saw me drawn to fish Dunlugas. On the Monday I had fished opposite on Mountblairy so I had a fair idea what to expect.

I arrived at the beat just after 9am and headed down to the hut. The water was down a wee bit from yesterday and a lot of the colour was out of it too which was good. There was a good rise of trout just in front of the hut so I decided to tackle up with my 10' 6" single hander and try a bit of dry fly fishing. I attached a tiny black Klinkhammer to my cast and within a few minutes I hooked a small trout about 10" long. It has been a long time since I cast my single hander so I was chuffed to get a fish not long after starting. That was it though as my dodgy casting spooked quite a few fish and they stopped rising. Think I stick to my double hander!

On Monday whilst fishing at Mountblairy I never fished the bottom half of the beat as it was a good walk from the car park but today, on the opposite bank, I got to fish the lower stretch. There are some cracking pools down this end and good for fishing the fly. I set up my 15ft Vision Catapult and spooled up my Monteith line with the intermediate 10ft tip. On the business end I opted for a #9 Cascade. I worked my way down the pool without seeing or touching anything but it was a nice pool to swim a fly in.

The next pool down was opposite the bottom hut. All the flow came round the bend down my side of the river and just off of the curent is where you might expect to find fish lying before making their way through the faster water above. As it was quite deep here I attached the fast sinking tip to my line and decided to give a 1" copper GBWG (Gold Bodied Willie Gunn) a soaking. I fished from the hut all the way down to the next bend without a touch. Never seen a fin move in here either.

The bottom pool which came off the outside of the bend on my bank was another nice streamy looking pool which again had a bit of depth to it. This pool is just above where Tiny Morison caught her famous British record fly caught Salmon. I went for a Sunray Shadow and tried to stir up any fish in the pool. Well it didn't work. Not even a flicker at it. I continued all the way down to the end of the beat with the same result.

At lunch time I headed back to the top hut as there was a nice fish landed there yesterday. I gave it a run through with the Sunray but no joy. As I was fishing down one of the other rods asked if I would help him get his car out a ditch. We took the rope for the life belt out of the hut and went up where his van was. We managed to pull his van free but he was very lucky as there was a wee burn running inches behind where he managed to stop. He was very appreciative and went back up the top of the beat to try and winkle out an elusive springer. Since the old saying goes "one good turn deserves another" I give it one last go it the corner pool just above the Mest where Tony landed a nice Sea Trout on Monday from Mountblairy. I tied on a good old Ally Shrimp and worked my way down the pool but to no avail. My good deed was not rewarded with a Deveron Salmon anyway.

It has been a pleasure fishing these beats and would recommend it for anyone wanting to give it a go next year. Although I never seen a salmon for the 3 days, plenty have been caught this week. I'm sure more will follow for the remainder of the week too.

Finally, I would like to thank and congratulate The Deveron Trust and Frank from Turriff Tackle for his organising of this event. Frank has worked tirelessly to make it the success it has been. Every morning he is in the Turriff AA hut greeting all anglers and giving directions to their alloted beats. You would really struggle to find many of them without his help. So Frank, Thank you very much for a great 3 days fishing. See you next year hopefully.

Here are some pictures of the Dunlugas beat.

Heading down to the Dunlugas beat in the morning. Nice view from the top of the hill.

This pool is called Canada from the other bank but not suee if it has a name from the Dunlugas side. This is where a springer was landed yesterday. I had a wee trout from here on a dry fly. This pool was stuffed with Brownies.

Looking upstream from the pool beside the bottom hut. Nice bit of water. Also quite deep at the neck of the pool.

Downstream view of the same pool. Nice flow comes off the croy. A few trout rising in the back eddy created behind the croy.

Looking downstream to the bottom of the beat. The well maintained banks make it a pleasure to fish. Again, another nice pool to fish.